As one of the 6 I’ll be happy to be the lucky few.
I’ll probably make mine a pay it forward after I get some time with mine and show it around at DMV throwers YoYo club
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I was a teacher for 15 years late into my professional life, some high school but mostly middle school. Tough! But mostly due to the admin side and sometimes from parents.
I connected with a lot of students and still hear from a number of them more than ten years after I left the classroom.
My wife is still a teacher and I use that term for all the praise it deserves. She is a gifted life skills teacher and loves her students.
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I’m a registered nurse. I graduated with my bachelors in nursing. I worked on a post-op neuro floor and got floated every once in awhile to critical care floors but not for me, unfortunately, I don’t like the constant stress of one of my patients possibly dying on my shift. I now transitioned to an outpatient clinic for infectious disease and am enjoying it a lot more!
I’m back in school now in a doctoral program to become a nurse practitioner with a specialty in psychiatric mental health. Ultimately, I would like to open up my own community mental health clinic and help as many people as I can. I am more or less following in my mother’s footsteps, she was a clinical psychologist who had her own private practice and worked for the government and school district. She was one of the best psychologists I have seen and that’s not just me being biased because she was my mom but also how highly all of her patients, their families, and her colleagues spoke about her. Unfortunately, my mother passed away from cancer October of last year but she was working and helping her patients up until her final breath.
My wife and I also run Few & Far Between Yoyos and love everything we do with the company and interacting with everyone who loves our yoyos. We have a lot of big ideas planned for the future and are currently working on something that hopefully all of you guys enjoy!
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- Worked in Logisitics/Procurement for a few years after college before transitioning to healthcare. Currently working in Healthcare Operations Management. Equal parts stressful and fulfilling.
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No degree here, only degree I procured was a “good enough degree” but thats a whole different story. One of my first jobs was working at a hardware store. Stocking, cutting keys, and mixing paint, that sort of stuff. Got a job working at my local zoo after that doing grounds maintainance and irrigation repair. I had the sole responsibility of maintaining 120 acres of commercial irrigation. If your familiar with irrigation thats nearly an impossible task for 1 person. So they would bring in contractors to help me when I needed it, only problem was they were paying me less than one third of what they paid the contractors to help me. Go figure.
After several years I had enough of that. My wife at the time was working for a company that fulfilled goverment contracting jobs. I got hired to pack and ship hazmat, radar, and computer parts as a contractor. After a few years I got hired on with the FAA and have been a federal employee ever since. Was kind of ironic, I left the zoo job because the contractors were getting payed triple what I was, so I went and became a contractor myself lol.
I did not struggle in school, in fact I was placed in many advanced learning programs. School was very easy for me so I got in trouble a fair bit because of it. My parents had a bad divorce when I was 13 and it really changed me and my life path. College was the logical step, but I spent most of my youth rebelling and not really caring about myself or what happened to me. Did a lot of stuff I shouldnt have. However I was able to get my life back together and through hard work and dedication my wife and I live a comfortable life now. I wouldnt change a thing now, but I always wonder where I would be if my situation was different back then and I went to college. Always had an interest in engineering and design.
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I’ve been in school for the past 7-8 years pursuing a doctorate in physical therapy degree. I graduate next week! Sat for the licensure exam and waiting to hear back from the results. I had some part time jobs here and there but for the most part my yo-yo spending came from doing mods, powder coats, and repairs, and I tried to keep other sources of income separate. I don’t really see myself increasing my yo-yo spending once I’m working full time, outside of the occasional purchase here and there when something that catches my eye pops up.
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I am a Chiropractor. I used to have my own practice in the City but the pandemic had diffrent plans so now i work out in Suffolk in a clinic. Have more family time and I’ve found some good throw time now more then before, so I’m happy with the situation.
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Oh, that is just hilarious! 
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I agree, it’s like we are trying to keep most Americans dumb because a large percentage of people can’t afford a higher education and those that do are stuck with debt for most of their lives, if not all of their lives. It’s crazy!
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Yeah, I absolutely understand that. After staring at my 3 large screens all day, the last thing I want to do is code as a hobby, I rarely open a computer after work, I don’t even want to look at one. I have a lot of idears, I just never get to them but I tend to work way too many hours just because I do enjoy what I do. When I get into a project I’m working on, I go into another world where time and space do not exist… My brother built his own smart home software, it’s really awesome what he’s done so far. Lately, all I want to do is throw, so I’m glad I got into software before I discovered this passion for yoyo’s. I take small breaks throughout the day, just so I can get some throw time in.
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Congratulations!!! You must feel a sense of relief and a sense of dread at the same time. 
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That’s awesome! Welcome to the forums too!
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Yeah, that’s the thing with these niche hobbies, you have to do it as a labor of love along with your day job, very few people get to actually make a good living at it, save for the big boys in the industry.
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i still need one, would absolutely GUSH over a purple heart bloodcell
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I have a very similar story to this. I just stopped caring, I became a teenager that I wouldn’t want to parent, got into a lot of trouble (never really with the law, got lucky there) and it just took a lot of years off of my overall growth as a human being not to mention professionally. The thing that matters is that we eventually found our paths, it’s better to be late than never. I still apologize to my mom for being such a punk, she went to hell and back for me, we have a very close relationship now too, so I’m thankful for that, she never gave up on me, she had true unconditional love.
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Debt most of their lives…
My wife obtained her Masters Degree at a Cal State college 10 years ago. By our calculations, we will get it paid off the year she retires in another 25 years.
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I’m a bit split on this. On one hand, American Universities are grossly overpriced for what you get, partly because such a large chunk is used to subsidize sports programs. At my university, the average prof salary is $130k. The football coach makes $5 million. I don’t want to pay for that.
On the other hand, it seems like a large percentage don’t go to college ‘correctly’. All my friends took out loans at ridiculous rates, went to expensive schools, and did not live frugally while studying. And some shouldn’t have gone to school at all! My cousin switched majors THREE TIMES before he graduated and is now not even using his degree.
I grew up pretty poor, and I knew bad debt can follow you forever, so I made it a goal to graduate debt-free. And I did, but it was tough. I went to a cheap community college that I commuted to and I had a side gig fixing iPhones in order to afford gas and food. Luckily I received a small grant from the government which helped. Went I transferred, I lived as cheaply as possible. I ate cheap food, I sold plasma, and I got a part-time job. Somehow my mom had saved up a little bit to cover some of my tuition, but mostly it was paid for by me. I like to joke that I lived like a peasant, but it paid off. I graduated with my bachelor’s without ever taking out a loan. I understand I was in a bit of a privileged position (despite my family never having much money), but when I look at my friends who lived it up during college, they still, after 10 years, have tens of thousands in student loan debt.
I’m not saying the US college system isn’t broken, because it is, but a lot of people do it ‘wrong’. So I really hate seeing things about ‘student loan forgiveness’ because I don’t want to pay for others’ lack of foresight and poor planning.
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Yep I took the route of community college trade school that was paid for by the state. California has its perks occasionally.
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I graduated with a degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Illinois. I have been a software professional ever since.
I was a consultant for many years. That exposed me to many different technologies and businesses. Today I work for a large national non-profit healthcare provider as a principal lead developer for Open Source development. For the last five years I have lead development of their new national enrollment system.
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what of the best network engineers that’s ever worked for me had a master’s in theology. Degree is just a paper that lets you in the door at most places.
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